Inside My Stupid Brain

First of all, check out my epic ATP review right here: http://mymusos.com/all-tomorrows-parties-vs-the-fans-part-ii-the-fans-strike-back/4557. I swear I've written essays shorter than it, so it would be very nice if some of you could read it.

In other news I'm thinking about trying to do some home recording. I've been really wanting to make some Noise Rock-type stuff after seeing The Jesus Lizard and I figure some rubbish lo-fi home recordings would sound alright and get that kind of rough Big Black/early Godflesh or Swans feel. So I'm scouring ebay for cheap 4 tracks. Any advice would be nice as well.

In celebration of the fact that I come up with about a million band names every day, here are some other projects I've been thinking of forming.

Pangolin - a Tortoise/Trans Am/Stereolab style melodic (but not so far towards the epic) post-rock group, with slightly complex, fiddly guitar lines. I've written some stuff for it, but I'm not sure I'm a good enough guitarist to do it properly yet. Plus pangolins are well cute.

Crushosaur - I made up this name after hearing about the metal band Bongzilla, and deciding that no name I could think of would be sillier. We would be pretty silly but massively rocking stoner rock stuff. I've written some stuff for this and it sounds pretty good. I can't not use that name, anyway.

Colossus - Like Crushosaur, but a little bit more experimental/serious. We'd probably slow things down and make things a bit doomy as well. We'd definitely be the one to make 12-minute epic.

Surgeons/Electric Barbarossa - One of my ultimate aims. We'd be an experimental rock/psychedelic rock/krautrock influenced outfit, but with lots of broader influences and, again, more opportunities for long songs and whatnot. Basically I just want to be Oneida, so much.

Also, please don't steal any of these names, unless you can do the projects much better than me. Which is pretty likely, actually.

Adventures In Oxfam #2. Godflesh - Messiah

Hello folks and welcome to the second installment of my new series. Today I will be reviewing Messiah by Godflesh, which narrowly beat The Cure's self-titled album in my browsing this week. Sorry this took so long - life/ATP got in the way, and then I lost the CD for a couple of days. Grr. Anyway...















(I apologise unreservedly for this image).

Backstory

You may remember that I was thinking of getting this album last time, and I've eventually given in, mainly due to curiousity as much as anything else. Godflesh is the project of Justin K. Broadrick, later of Jesu, and I've heard both name being bandied around as being fairly important metal bands. I also chose it because I thought this exercise would be a good opportunity to check out music I don't listen to that often. I have really very little idea what to suggest, wiki says "industrial metal". Well, we'll see.

Artwork

Ok, a bit minimal. Contains some fairly spooky photos (I have no idea what's going on in the one inside). Bare amount of information inside. 5/10.

(Also it turns out that's not the front cover I'm posing with up there. Oh well)

1. Messiah

Starts with a fairly big, yet melodic riff. Nice bass tone. Vocals quite understated, sort of spoken-word and quite low in the mix, which makes a welcome change from a lot of metal. This is a lot more listenable than I was expecting. I think there's a subtle hint of electronics, or at least some kind of tremelo-y noise in the background, which adds to the feel of the track quite nicely. I can definitely hear the common threads between this and Jesu, especially the Silver EP stuff.

2. Wilderness of Mirrors

Opens with some weird electronics and what sound like programmed drums (I checked the insert, and apparently the drums are indeed programmed, although they're done very well). Another big, squelchy bass sound and that kind of phasey, echoey guitar part that they love in industrial stuff. Again there's not a huge amount of variation as it goes on, but I suppose that's sort of the point. I do like the flangey electronics a lot. Another good track.

3. Sungod

Mostly drums and bass this one, with Broadrick's dispassionate (even for this album) vocals over the top. The guitar part is quite atonal and screechy, but it works quite well. There's not too much more to say, the tracks are fairly similar in their approach, but they all work quite well.

4. Scapegoat

Almost tribal sounding drums at the beginning (although they go a bit slowed-down drum n' bass later). I'm starting to appreciate how the repeition seen in these songs is part of the hypnotic charm. The vocals are a bit distorted on this one, which is a nice change and the guitar part is more of a traditionally metal one. This is probably the most aggressive track so far (and over 2 minutes shorter than everything else, I notice). Ooh there's even sort of metal shouting. \m/ I'm fond of this one.

5. Messiah Dub

I had wondered what all these "Dub" tracks were at the end. Then I found out this was originally supposed to be an EP released solely to the Godflesh fan club, but it got a rerelease some years later, with these four remixes tacked on to the end. Not sure what to expect.

I see why they call it "dub" now. There's a lot more bass, and it feels a bit slower and more groove-orientated. The bass isn't really distorted anymore either, it sounds like Jah Wobble playing it now. The vocals are nice and echoey too. Pretty good.

6. Wilderness of Mirrors Dub

A similar kind of thing going on here. They've not really played around with the structure of the songs very much so far, so I'm not sure how much extra value they add but they're interesting curiosities at least. This one is definitely a bit more swirly, atmospheric and shoegaze-y, so again I can see the link with Jesu.

7. Sungod Dub

I'm realising trying to judge these dub versions against the originals is somewhat tricky, given the fact that I've only listened to each one time. I suppose this is a limitation of the live reviewing format, but I don't suppose this problem will occur too much. It's not sounding too repetitive as I'm listening so I guess that's a plus for the remixes! I notice some additional piano and spacey background noise on this one, which I heartily approve of.

8. Scapegoat Dub

I'm expecting something different her, however, since the remix is about 5 minutes longer than the original track. Right away the drums sound even more drum n' bass/jungle style. Man these remixes make Godflesh sound quite a lot like Killing Joke. I like how they make up the extra time on these - it sort of deconstructs the original and throws it a lot of buzzy electronics and ambient noise while the drums pound on.

Overall, I really liked that. It was an interesting, and surprisingly listenable introduction into a genre I've been meaning to investigate for a while. I've been having a bit of a metal binge this week as well, which helps.

Hope you enjoyed this.

Horatio x

For those of you on lastfm

This thing is quite neat. It makes a wallpaper based on the covers of your favourite albums. You'll also notice that it suggests linking to it from your blog if you like it, so I have begrudgingly agreed.

This is what my desktop now has adorning it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37274331@N02/3530802678/

Oh and for the first time in a while I have a review up. Hurrah! Here is my review of HEALTH at Corsica Studios last week http://mymusos.com/health-london-corsica-studios/4502

I'll reiterate my appeal here: I'm lookign for guest bloggers, if anyone fancies it (and am happy to reciprocate). I might just have a guest blog up this week, if I'm lucky.

Peace

Horatio x

Knee Deep at ATP

Gnnnrrr ATP so good. Can't think properly. So tired and ill. But worth it. Best weekend ever. Just amazing. I don't feel up to doing a full review of all the music yet (though I'm sure I'll write one for one of my sites & put it up here) so now have a very long list of mostly non-musical highlights of the weekend:

-Geordie from Killing Joke drinking from a bottle of wine during their set.
-Some guy randomly lifting me up during same set
-Being so disorientated after Sleep (seriously my trousers were still soaked with sweat the next day) that I bought a load of sour sweets, for reasons I don't quite understand
-Being pushed along in one of those tall, thin trolleys by a very inebriated friend of mine at about 1 in the morning. Somebody randomly joined in as well. It's a miracle we didn't hit anyone
-Shouting myself hoarse to the DJ set right at the end to "Debaser" and other classics. I then witnessed a human pyramid (which collapsed) and took part in some kind of weird knee-sitting chain thing (which also collapsed)
-After above someone who happens to work for ATP talked about there being a "cock party" on the beach and mentioned how he'd like to get two men so drunk that they'd slap their cocks together rhythmically.
-During a technical problem in Marnie Stern's set her bassist told a story, pretending to be Marnie, about her rejecting John Cusack when she was 17.
-Some guy, whilst throwing up, saying to a girl who was clearly quite disturbed "It's just rock n' roll, honey, don't worry about it"
-There was an art exhibiton, and I popped my head in at one point to see there was a live improv jam going on on the floor of the gallery
-Lydia Lunch's spoken word set. Surprisingly good.
-Beirut asking if he should "put a donk on it"
-Future of the Left being generally funny, describing ATP as an "alternative festival of beards and flannel shirts" and throwing love hearts into the crowd. I caught one.
-Coming up with yet another pseudonym: "Justin Parenthesis"

And, possibly best of all, meeting the bassist from Parts & Labor so many times yesterday that I felt I was practically in the band. There's also an awesome photo of the two of us where it looks like I've pinched him on the arse. Observe:
















Wow, that's a lot of highlihts. Guess truly it was a memorable weekend.

Peace out

Horatio x

"No" Subject

Hello folks. I'm off to the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in about 15 minutes, so normal service should resume next Monday or thereabouts (I doubt you'll even notice, hahaha). For some content to keep you going, have a short article I wrote on No Wave for the Cherwell student paper in Oxford, which may or may not have been published, I don't know.

"Yes it sounds like a joke. Yes it sounds like something the NME would make up (incidentally does anyone remember their laughable attempt at “no name” some years back?). No, you’ve almost certainly never heard of it. But No Wave was an influential, pioneering and often challenging music and art scene that briefly thrived in New York in the late 70s and early 80s.
Although not strictly a coherent genre in itself the No Wave bands formed a loose collection that sort to distance themselves from the emergent new wave scene. Drawing on a range of diverse influence, including funk, jazz and all things avant garde, the music itself is often extremely dissonant and seems to favour rhythm and texture over actual melody. The musicians, many of them artists as well, embraced the “do it yourself” attitude of punk, with added nihilist tendencies.
No Wave’s mission statement is undoubtedly the Brian Eno produced “No New York”, which features tracks by scene stalwarts James Chance and the Contortions, DNA, Mars and Teenage Jesus & the Jerks. Of these the Contortions are by far the best, their signature song “Contort Yourself” being an essential introductory track, whereas Teenage Jesus are definitely best avoided at first.
However, perhaps a better introduction to the varied sounds of the scene, and one that’s somewhat easier to get hold of, is the “New York Noise” compilation, which includes tracks by the almost criminally funky Konk, the magnificent Bush Tetras and the sublime ESG.
Inevitably the influence of No Wave far surpassed the extremely limited popularity it enjoyed during its lifetime. Theoretical Girls, and especially their experimental guitarist Glenn Branca, were greatly influential on Sonic Youth and indeed both Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore played with Branca on his solo recordings. Sonic Youth’s “Confusion is Sex” is the best realisation of their early No Wave tendencies and Glenn Branca’s “Lesson No. 1” is one of the most beautiful and interesting compositions of the period, and relatively easy on the ears to boot. Other modern bands influenced by the No Wave scene, and all worth checking out, include Liars (particularly “Drum’s Not Dead”), Les Georges Leningrad and Erase Errata.
So if you like your music to be challenging and inventive, often difficult but ultimately rewarding, then you could do much worse than checking out this remarkable period in post-punk music history. Sometimes it is better just to say “No”."

Horatio x

Best Supergroup Ever

It has been brought to my attention tonight that if I were to form a band comprised of musicians who share my birthday it would include, alongside myself:

Neal Peart, drummer for the prog giants Rush
Ben Folds, of the Ben Folds Five and solo fame

and

Barry White (hey, I'm already stretching the boundaries of plausability)
Oh, and Maurice Chevalier (singer of "Thank Heaven For Little Girls")

It would certainly be an interesting sound. I'm almost tempted to try and record a song based on what I think that collaboration would sound like, although that might mean I'd have to try and imitate my own musical style, which is quite a freakishly meta thought.

Things have been a little quiet on the review front, but I rdid review the Sonic Youth gig at the Scala. (http://mymusos.com/sonic-youth-london-scala/4217) I basically said exactly the same as in my previous post, but in more words. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Also, I promise a more substantial update soon. I've just not felt like it today.

The First Third

It can sometimes be difficult to tell how good a year will be for music at the time. Often it only really becomes apparent at the end of the year, although hindsight can be an obfuscating force. For me it was only really 2007 and 2008 that I was into music enough to consider this question as the year was progressing (I think the former was the better of the two years, but that's not really the issue here). This trend of being progressively more up-to-date with music has continued this year, especially with the music reviewing, and so I thought I'd try and give a review of 2009 so far, to try and make sense of it musically. I slightly stole this idea from a thread on Drownedinsound, but here are a list of the albums I've heard so far this year, in rough order, with each one rated out of 5.

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion 5/5
Dan Deacon - Bromst 5/5
Mi Ami - Watersports 4.5/5
Dark Was The Night (compilation) 4.5/5
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love 4.5/5
Micachu - Jewellery 4/5
Beirut - March of The Zapotec/Holland 4/5
Zu - Carboniferous 4/5
Mastodon - Crack The Skye (need to listen to this more) 4/5
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - The Century of Self 3.5/5
The Horrors - Primary Colours 3.5/5
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz! 3.5/5
Thee Oh Sees - Help 3.5/5
worriedaboutsatan - Arrivals 3.5/5
Bob Log III - My Shit Is Perfect 3/5
Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love 3/5
Fever Ray - Fever Ray 3/5
Love Is All - A Hundred Things Kept Me Up At Night 2.5/5
Charles Spearin - The Happiness Project 2.5/5
Magik Markers - Balf Quarry 2/5

Wow, that's quite a lot, eh? And there's at least another 2 on top of that I haven't listened to enough to really form a proper opinion of. And I've probably forgotten about one that I've listened to on spotify or something. Whatever.

Looking at that, I'd say 2009's been pretty sweet so far. The top 5 are about as good as I could expect from new albums, and nicely varied too. Plus, there's plenty more exciting stuff coming out this year, and a whole load of things on my "excited about" list, which now includes Jeffrey Lewis, Big Business, The Field, Dinosaur Jr and drone-fanatics Sunn o))), among others.

I've also been making the effort to go to more gigs this year. Would you like a quick review of all the gigs I've seen this year? Of course you would.

Parts & Labor @ Cargo

Excellent. Very good start to the year.

HTRK @ The Lexington

Went on a whim, as was recommended by lastfm. Was surprisingly good.

Dinosaur Pile-Up @ Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen

Disastrous.

Dutch Uncles/It Hugs Back @ RoTa, Notting Hill Arts Club

First band (can't remember the name) weren't great, but these two were both good. Made up for missing an all-dayer at Brick Lane.

Maths Class @ This Is Offset Presents, The Buffalo Bar

Missed the first band, but these guys were good.

The Fall @ Koko

Really good, much better than I was suspecting. Certainly better than the first time I saw them. Mark E Smith was on good form.

Bob Log III @ The 100 Club

The most fun gig I've been to in an age. Very sweaty and enjoyable.

Mi Ami @ The Lexington

Had to go on my own, but really good. Very loud and energetic,

Some bands @ The Buffalo Bar

None were particularly memorable. The company was much better.

Frightened Rabbit instore @ Pure Groove Records

Interesting going to a daytime gig. Nice and intimate.

Sonic Youth @ The Scala

Superlative. Gig of the year so far, easily.

Mi Ami (again) @ The Macbeth

Even better than the first time I saw them. Smaller venue as well. Glad I went to see them a second time.

That's not too shabby, considering I've missed about 4-5 gigs I really wanted to see on top of that. And it's ATP this weekend! Roll on, rest of 2009!